Remains of a French Post near Trem- 
pealeau 

I. Archeological Sketch, by £ben D. Pierce 

II. Additional Archeological Details, by 
George H. Squier 

III. Historical Sketch, by Louise Phelps 
Kellogg 




The State Historical Society of Wisconsin 

Separate No. 167 

From the Proceedings of the Society for 1915 



Remains of a French Post near Trem- 
pealeau 

I. Archeological Sketch, by Eben D. Pierce 

II. Additional Archeological Details, by 

George H. Squier 

III. Historical Sketch, by Louise Phelps 
Kellogg 




The State Historical Society of Wisconsin 

Separate No. 167 

From the Proceedings of the Society for 1915 






Publications 



State Historical Society 
of Wisconsin 



Edited by 

Milo M. Quaife 

Superintendent of the Society 



T>1 Of D» 

m' 5 1916 



Remains of a French Post Near Trempealeau' 



I. Archeological Sketch: by Eben D. Pierce 

In the early eighties Dr. Lyman C. Draper, then secretary 
of the State Historical Society, received a request from the 
French Academy of History for information regarding the 
location of Perrot's post, as indicated on Franquelin's map of 
1688, a few miles above the mouth of Black River on the east 
bank of the Mississippi. Doctor Draper sought the assistance 
of A. W. Newman, of Trempealeau, later justice of the Wisconsin 
Supreme Court, who was much interested in local history. He 
enlisted the services of Judge B. F. Heuston, then at work on a 
history of Trempealeau, who took up the work with enthusiasm 
and carefully searched the riverside of the bluffs for some mark of 
the ancient fort. He made several journeys to Trempealeau 
bay in the vain effort to find some trace of the early post, as the 
bay would seem to have afforded an excellent site for wintering 
quarters. 

Meanwhile, some of the workmen engaged in grading the 
Chicago, Burlington & Northern Railway along the river dis- 
covered, about two miles above the village, the remains of fire- 

^ Although the French occupation of Wisconsin lasted more than a century 
and we have documentary evidence of the existence within its boundaries of 
ten or more regular posts, built by orders of the government, aside from fur 
trading posts, nevertheless, there is no archeological evidence of the exact 
site of any of them, unless the evidence concerning the one near Trempealeau 
may be so considered. The presentation of this evidence by two Trempealeau 
residents, one of whom was active in the discovery of the post, is supplemented 
by a summary of the documentary material written by a member of the Society's 
staff. It is interesting to note that, by working from separate points of view, 
similar conclusions have been reached; in view of the evidence presented it 
seems fair to suggest that these remains should no longer be styled "Perrot's 
Fort" without some qualifying or additional statement. 



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Wisconsin Historical Society 

places or hearths. Judge Heuston, hearing of these finds, decided 
to visit the place and investigate. He selected George H. Squier 
to assist him and accompanied by Antoine Grignon and W. A. 
Finkelnburg of Winona, they went to the place where the fire- 
places had been uncovered and began excavations. The next 
spring. Judge Newman having communicated these facts to the 
State Historical Society, Reuben G. Thwaites, then the newly 
elected secretary of the Society, came to Trempealeau and on 
April 18, accompanied by W. A. Finkelnburg and the local 
historians, made a historical pilgrimage to the site of the post 
that had been found, and continued the excavations. ^ 

The first fireplace had already been laid bare, and Mr. Squier 
had succeeded in tracing by a line of charcoal the former wall of 
the building. The dimensions of the building were about twenty 
by thirty feet; the fireplace was two and a half feet in depth and 
four feet long with enclosing walls at back and sides. The chimney 
had undoubtedly been a wooden structure made of small logs 
with clay daubing, as there was not stone enough found to indi- 
cate a stone chimney. 

A blacksmith's forge was also unearthed, together with some 
scrap iron, and a pile of charcoal which had evidently been used 
in a smelter. A pile of slag, some sixteen feet in diameter, was 
found showing that the occupants of the post had attempted 
smelting. The slag consisted of a mixture of iron ore and lime- 
stone. The remains of the smelting furnace were also found. Other 
relics discovered included some hand-wrought nails, buffalo 
bones, an old-fashioned flintlock pistol, a gun barrel, and an auger. 
The pistol was of excellent make, which led Mr. Squier to believe 
that the explorers had excavated the officers' quarters. Seven of 
the original buildings were unearthed in all; one was left un- 
disturbed. 

James Reed, the first settler in this county, said that when he 
first came to Trempealeau in 1840, he had noticed the elevated 
foundations at this place, where part of the fireplace protruded 
above the sod, but as the region abounded in Indian mounds of 
various types, he had attached no especial significance to this 

*The arrangements for this meeting were made by B. F. Heuston. In addi- 
tion to R. G. Thwaites, of Madison, and N. H. Winchell, of St. Paul, some forty 
or fifty persons interested in such work came from La Crosse, Winona, and other 
adjoining places. 

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French Post near Trempealeau 

particular elevation. There was, however, a lingering tradition 
among the Indians of the locality concerning a French fort near 
the sacred Trempealeau Mountain. 

In the summer of 1912 George H. Squier, Antoine Grignon, and 
the writer did some excavating at this site. By a cross-sectional 
excavation we were able to pick up the charcoal hne of the main 
building and follow it several feet, and from this it was possible to 
verify Mr. Squier's early estimate of its dimensions. We also 
found, besides charcoal, numerous bones, among which were the 
jawbone of a beaver, the toe bones and claw of a bear, and some 
large bones either of elk or buffalo. 

The place was well selected for wintering quarters. It lay near 
the head of a slough which, setting back from the Mississippi, 
afforded a quiet harbor free from the menace of floating ice. 
Springs exist in the side of Brady's and Sullivan's peaks a quarter 
of a mile away, but the river water was drinkable, and there was 
an abundance of firewood. The bluffs protected the post from the 
cold north and east winds. 

II. Additional Archeological Details: by George H. Squier 

It is now nearly thirty years since the French post at Trem- 
pealeau was first discovered, and those who had part in that dis- 
covery have nearly all passed away. As it chanced the writer was 
the first to uncover any portion of the remains, and it was also 
his fortune that this first site explored was that of the most im- 
portant and best constructed of the group and afforded a key to 
the construction plan and the identity of the remains. To the 
brief account given in the tenth volume of the Wisconsin His- 
torical Collections, the writer is the only one alive who is able to 
add from first-hand knowledge, details that were noted but not 
recorded at the time the post was first laid bare. 

In describing the remains one basic fact must be borne in mind, 
namely, that they show two distinct periods of occupancy the 
earlier of which was probably that of Perrot, the later with little 
doubt represented by Linctot. Most of the descriptions, therefore, 
must apply to the later rather than to the earlier post. The only 
portion of the remains which can confidently be ascribed to the 
earlier period is the lower of tw o hearths occupying the same site. 

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Wisconsin Historical Society 

If there were any other remains of this earher period, they were 
indistinguishably mingled with those of the later. This earlier 
hearth was less carefully constructed than the later, hence we 
may conjecture that Perrot's accommodations were cruder than 
those of Linctot. So far as the character of the construction 
could be judged from the remains, it by no means equaled the 
average squatter's cabin in solidity and permanence, and there 
was nothing whatever to indicate any attempt at defensive con- 
struction. 

Of the hearths other than the largest one, which was the first 
to be uncovered, it is believed there were five, two of which were 
removed in grading the railway. In comparison with the first, 
these five were much inferior in construction, the hearthstones 
being very irregular in form with no indications of backs or chim- 
neys. As this would indicate that the smoke escaped through the 
roof, it would point to structures very little removed from Indian 
tepees slightly modified for white occupancy. Their true positions 
with reference to Number 1 and to each other were not deter- 
mined, but their distribution was rather irregular. 

In front of the supposed officers' quarters were two construc- 
tions representing the industrial equipment of the post. One of 
these was the blacksmith's forge. The excavations about this 
were conducted by the owner of a private museum at St. Paul, 
Minnesota, assisted by Antoine Grignon. As was to be expected 
this furnished the greater portion of the metal relics. Among 
them I remember a pistol, an auger, a staple, some nails, and 
several bits of scrap iron. The other construction, which was 
explored by myself, undoubtedly represented an attempt to re- 
duce our local iron ores by the open-hearth process. There were the 
remains of a large pile of charcoal several feet in diameter, and 
a considerable pile of the resultant slag, representing material in 
all stages of fusion from the glassy to that showing unfused frag- 
ments of the ore and limestone intimately commingled. That this 
ore, a residual from the decay of limestone and usually associated 
with flint, is not now very abundant about the Trempealeau bluffs 
is believed to be in part due to the fact that it was largely gathered 
up by the occupants of this post, since it occurs in considerable 
abundance in many other Mississippi River bluffs. 

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French Post near Trempealeau 



It seems probable that Linctot's occupancy was something 
more than temporary, and represented a tentative attempt to 
establish a permanent post, which, however, was soon abandoned. 
There are evidences that the French scoured the region for a 
considerable distance around the post — an ax of the period having 
been recovered from a shallow pond three miles eastward. 

The relation these remains bear to Indian antiquities is worthy 
of notice. A considerable group of mounds occurs only a few 
rods west of the site, and a single mound appears on the rather 
prominent stony point in front of the post. There are some 
peculiar features, not found elsewhere in this region, in the manner 
of disposal and burning of the skeletons covered by this mound; 
while conspicuously different from the usual Indian methods they 
are much like primitive methods practised in Europe. It seems 
reasonable to suppose that the French were in some way concerned 
in these burials. It may be noted that the lower of the two 
hearths on the supposed site of the officers' quarters was itself 
built over an Indian bake hole in which ashes and bones were 
ofund. 

Before the uncovering of the site there was nothing in any 
way resembling a tumulus. Indeed, the surface was more 
even than it is now, for in the process of excavation the dirt 
was heaped up in places. At the largest hearth the clay with 
which the chimney had been plastered formed a covering a 
few inches thick over the natural surface, but the rise was 
so small and the slope so gentle that it was scarcely recognizable. 
The one feature noted by James Reed and Antoine Grignon, 
which led to the final discovery of the place was that the sides 
and back of the hearth, formed of small flat stones, projected an 
inch or two above the surface. The construction was so rude, 
however, that Judge Heuston, \V. A. Finkelnburg, and Antoine 
Grignon, who preceded me to the place, after examining some of 
the top stones concluded that it was not artificial and went on 
to the bay. Coming up after they had left, there seemed to me 
something in the arrangement not quite natural, and working 
around carefully with a garden trowel I quickly exposed the 
outlines, and by the time they returned from the bay the hearth 
was fully exposed. The hearth proper was about two by four 
feet in dimensions, while the outside dimensions of the chimney 

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Wisconsin Historical Society 

were probably about twice as large. The sides and back were 
built of small flat stones laid in clay to a height somewhere 
between one and two feet, above which the chimney construction 
must have been of small logs plastered with clay, in which a 
considerable amount of grass was mixed for better binding. 
The hearths themselves were of such flat stones as could be found 
in the vicinity, the best of them being used in this hearth at the 
ofTicers' quarters. With the possible exception of some slight 
trimming of the edges no tool work had been given them. But 
this and the underlying hearth were covered by several inches 
of ashes with which were mingled numerous fragments of bones of 
birds and small animals. The larger bones were thrown out back 
of the hearth which was evidently at the western end of the 
principal building. 

It is probable that the stone construction did not extend much 
more than a foot above the hearth and that these stones were 
mostly in place when the remains were discovered. Very few 
stones were found mingled with the debris around the hearth, 
which could hardly have been the case had any considerable 
height of such construction fallen down. It is probable that the 
log enclosure was built up from the ground of sufficient size to 
permit a protective interlining, which at the bottom was of stones 
laid in clay. After the supply of stones gave out the construction 
was continued of clay alone as high as needed. Used in this 
way the stones were added as fillers, much as we do in concrete 
constructions with little effort to arrange them in orderly sequence.^ 

According to cross-sectional excavations made in the summer 
of 1912 the dimensions of this building were twenty by thirty 
feet; but these figures are to be looked upon as merely a con- 
jectural estimate.^ There was nothing whatever to determine 



' Perhaps the foregoing overstates the case somewhat. The stones were laid 
about as closely and carefully as was possible with the material — small, thin 
fragments from the Mendota limestone. It seems not unlikely that the builders 
overestimated the amount of such material easily available. — G. H. S. 

* There is a large rock, the only object breaking the otherwise clear surface of 
the site, which would have been included in a building of the size and emplace- 
ment here given. The rock, of hard, local sandstone, stands upiight, deeply 
bedded in the earth and rising nearly three feet above the surface. It is not clear 
why this should have been included in the building unless it was thought it 
might be utilized. The one plausible conjecture, that it might have furnished 

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French Post near Trempealeau 

the position of the south wall, and the evidence concerning 
the location of the east wall was very slight. The distance from 
the northwest corner to the south side of the hearth was about 
ten feet. Five or six feet should be allowed for a door, which 
there is reason to believe existed on the west side south of the 
hearth, so that an estimate of twenty feet for the width of the 
building can not be regarded as excessive. As far as traced, the 
north wall was a straight, even, sharply defined line of charcoal, 
perhaps ten inches wide. Nothing which could be regarded as 
its counterpart was found on the east side. 

III. Historical Sketch: by Louise Phelps Kellogg 

The character of the French posts in Wisconsin was deter- 
mined by the conditions under which they were built. A thou- 
sand miles from the source of supplies, dependent upon transporta- 
tion by birch-bark canoes upon rapid rivers where frequent 
portages must be made, isolated in dense forests, far from other 
habitations, the economy of the post was of necessity primitive 
and almost wholly self-sufficing. The forest and its dwellers 
furnished wood, bark, skins, and meat. Next in importance 
came tools, which were brought from the colony, but repaired 
and supplemented by the blacksmith who accompanied every 
garrison; and wherever possible, lead and iron were obtained 
from the vicinity by such crude methods of smelting as it was 
possible to carry on. The posts were rough log structures, but 
the exigencies of the Wisconsin climate made fireplaces and 
chimneys, improvised from whatever materials could be obtained, 
essential. Usually the group of rude log huts, the smithy and 
the storehouses, was enclosed by a palisade for protection against 
wild beasts and hostile red men. Such was the riverside post of 
the French regime in Wisconsin, whose ruler, usually an officer 
in the colonial army, was grandiloquently styled a commandant. 

It has not been definitely ascertained when or by whom the 
first French post in Wisconsin was built. The custom of utilizing 
the Jesuit missions, centers of trade and hospitality, for treating 

the back for a fire, was not borne out by an examination. The presence of this 
stone furnishes a seeming objection to the other evidence concerning the arrange- 
ment of the building. — G. H. S. 

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Wisconsin Historical Society 

with the Indians makes it uncertain whether there was a French 
post at Green Bay during the seventeenth century. The first 
commandant whose name we possess was Nicolas Perrot, 
erstwhile trader and interpreter in the Northwest for twenty 
years. ^ 

Perrot arrived at Green Bay, where he was already well known, 
in the late summer of the year 1685. He found the Indians restless 
and inclined to intertribal wars, so that some time was spent in 
their pacification. It was later than he had planned, therefore, 
when he set out for the country of the Sioux, where he hoped to 
secure a great harvest of valuable furs. After crossing the Wis- 
consin portage, and proceeding down that river to its mouth, he 
turned his little fleet of canoes boldly upstream; but as the weather 
was growing cold and traveling difficult, they "found a place 
where there was timber, which served them for building a fort, 
and they took up their quarters at the foot of a mountain, behind 
which was a great prairie, abounding in wild beasts."^ 

To one familiar with the topography of this section, the de- 
scription of the site of Perrot's wintering quarters in 1685-86 is 
very clearly that of the Trempealeau Prairie, because there are 
the only blufTs near the river having a large prairie in their rear 
and Trempealeau Mountain, moreover, is a well-known landmark 
on the upper Mississippi.^ In addition to this indication we have 
that of the well-known map of Jean Baptiste Louis Franquelin 
published in 1688, and based undoubtedly on information ob- 
tained from Perrot himself. 

Franquelin, an engineer of repute and royal hydrographer, 
visited New France in 1687. His famous map of Louisiana in 
1684, drawn to display La Salle's discoveries, has but few indi- 



* Perrot has been called by Benjamin Suite "the great Frenchman of the 
West," Canadian Royal Society, Proceedings and Transactions, 3rd ser., VI, 
pt. 1, 12. Born about 1644, he came to New France in his youth and at least 
as early as 1665 visited Green Bay and for five years traded with the neighbor- 
ing nations. In 1671 he was interpreter at St. Lusson's pageant at Sault Ste. 
Marie. His career during the next fourteen years is obscure, part of the time 
being spent at his seigniory on the St. Lawrence. In 1685 La Barre commis- 
sioned him commandant of La Baye and its dependencies. 

^ E. H. Blair, Indian Tribes of the Upper Mississippi (Cleveland, 1911), 
I, 367. 

' Wisconsin Historical Society, Proceedings, 1906, 246, 247. 

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French Post near Trempealeau 

cations of upper Mississippi sites. That of 1688, however, records 
with much accuracy the upper Mississippi region, and since we 
know Perrot to have been in Quebec in the autumn of 1687, there 
is every reason to suppose that he furnished Franquelin with the 
data appearing thereon. Not far above the mouth of Riviere 
Noire — the Black River of today — there is written La Butte d' 
Hyvernement (the hill of the wintering place), which seems to be 
intended for Trempealeau Mountain, near where the commandant 
and his party wintered.^ Fort St. Nicolas at the mouth of the 
Wisconsin, and Fort St. Antoine, above the Chippewa, both 
founded by Perrot, are likewise indicated. 

Just when Perrot left his wintering place on the Mississippi and 
built Fort Antoine higher up the river is not entirely clear, 
probably it was in the spring of 1686. Certainly he was upon the 
upper river until the spring of 1687, when he left to join Denon- 
ville's expedition against the Iroquois. During this year and a 
half in the Sioux country Perrot had amassed a stock of furs worth 
40,000 livres. In his absence on the warpath, these were left stored 
at the mission house at Green Bay, which was burned by hostile 
Indians with the loss of all his peltry.^ 

In the autumn of 1687, Perrot set out once more for the North- 
west to retrieve his ruined fortunes, and visit again his Missis- 
sippi posts. The winter ice was not yet out of the rivers when he 
pushed forward from Green Bay to reach Fort St. Antoine, where 
the Sioux received him with acclaim. There in May, 1689, he 
took possession of the Sioux country in the name of the king of 
France, annexing the Minnesota and St. Croix river districts and 
all the headwaters of the Mississippi. i" 

One of the witnesses to this document was Pierre Charles le 
Sueur, an explorer and trader in the far Northwest, whose work was 
to supplement that of Perrot. Six years later Le Sueur built a 
fort on Pelee Island in Lake Pepin, which was maintained about 
four years, during his own absence in France. When he returned, 
and ascended the Mississippi from its mouth to the Minnesota, 

* For a partial reproduction of Franquelin's map of 1688, see E. D. Neill, 
History of Minnesota (Minneapolis, 4th ed., 1882), frontispiece. 
« Blair, Indian Tribes, II, 25. 
'" Wisconsin Historical Collections, XI, 35, 36. 

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the remains of both Fort St, Antoine and his own island fort were 
plainly to be seen.^^ 

More than one-fourth of the eighteenth century passed away 
before another attempt was made to build a post on the upper 
Mississippi. The Fox Indian wars had made the Fox- Wisconsin 
waterway untenable and any approach to the Sioux had to take 
the difficult route from the end of Lake Superior through the 
tangled marshes and ponds at the head of the Mississippi. 

In 1727, however, the French government determined to erect 
a post among the Sioux. In September of the same year the new 
fort was erected, amid imposing ceremonies, on the Minnesota 
side of Lake Pepin. The failure of the expedition against the Foxes 
the following year made this post untenable, however, and it was 
hastily abandoned by the alarmed garrison. ^^ 

In 1731, the Foxes being temporarily subdued, another expedi- 
tion to build a Sioux post was placed in charge of Rene Godefroy, 
sieur de Linctot.^' With him went his son Louis Rene, Augustin 
Langlade and his brother, Joseph Jolliet, grandson of the ex- 
plorer, one Campeau, a skilled blacksmith, brother of the one at 
Detroit, and Father Michel Guignas, chaplain of the expedition. 

They arrived on the Mississippi in the autumn of 1731, and 
according to the official report built "a fort On the Mississipy at a 
Place called the Mountain * * * (la Montague qui trempe dans 
I'Eau) * * * "1^ The winter did not pass without events. During 
the deep snows food became so scarce that Linctot was obliged to 
send his voyageurs and traders to winter in the camps of the 
Indians. One of the voyageurs named Dorval had a thrilling ex- 
perience with refugee Foxes, fleeing from an attack of mission 
Iroquois and Detroit Huron. Later some of the same fugitives 
came to Linctot to beg for their lives. The Sioux began coming in 



" Pierre Margry, Decouvertes ef Etablissements des FrariQais (Paris, 1882), 
V, 413. 

12 Wis. Hist. Colls., XVII, 10-15, 22-28, 56-59, 77-80. 

" Linctot was born in 1675 at Three Rivers, Canada, where communication 
with the northern country was frequent, and where many retired ofTicers, mis- 
sionaries, and fur traders dwelt. Linctot entered the colonial army as ensign, 
being sent in 1718 with the expedition that established a post at Chequamegon 
Bay, where he was chief in command, 1720-22. The next year we find him 
second in command at Detroit. 

" Wis. Hist. Colls., XVII, 151, 168, 169. 

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French Post near Trempealeau 

large numbers when they learned of Linctot's presence, and a 
camp of Winnebago wintered near by. 

The succeeding years were replete with danger and difTiculty 
for the officers and traders of the little Sioux post. Although 
the Foxes had been defeated and large numbers of them destroyed, 
desperate remnants remained scattered over the western country, 
and attacking parties of mission Indians and others allied with 
the French made frequent excursions to harass the wretched 
fugitives. The Sioux promised protection to the French, but 
their situation among the fierce belligerents was almost that of 
prisoners. In April, 1735, one of the Jesuits wrote from Quebec, 
"we are Much afraid that father Guignas has been taken and 
burned by a tribe of savages called the renards.''^^ The anxiety 
in Canada over his fate was allayed, however, the same summer, 
when Linctot finally arrived in the colony bringing an immense 
quantity of beaver skins and other peltry.^^ He reported that he 
had left Father Guignas with but six men at the little fort in the 
Sioux country, and asked for himself that he be relieved from 
command. ^^ 

To succeed Linctot in the post of the Sioux the governor- 
general of New France chose Jacques le Gardeur, sieur de St. 
Pierre, sending him with a party of twenty-two men to make 
their way to the upper Mississippi. ^^ This small convoy reached 
its destination late in 1735, and early the following spring St. 
Pierre determined to remove the post twenty-five leagues (about 
sixty miles) higher up the Mississippi. ^^ There for a year they 
held a hostile tribe at bay, employing every device of strategy 



" R. G. Thwaites, Jesuit Relations (Cleveland, 1900), LXVIII, 255. 

i« Wis. Hist. Colls., XVII, 230. 

17 Thwaites, Jesuit Relations, LXVIII, 281; Margry, Decouv. et Etabl., VI, 
572, 573; Wis. Hist. Colls., XVII, 274, note. 

" Jacques le Gardeur, sieur de St. Pierre, was a grandson of Jean Nicolet, 
discoverer of the Northwest. Born in 1701, he had been at the Chequamegon 
post commanded by his father and was conversant with several Indian languages. 
He had taken part in the expedition of 1728 against the Foxes, and after his 
experience with the Sioux commanded a detachment against the Chickasaw. 
Later assignments took him to Acadia, Lake Champlain, and the Saskatchewan, 
whence he was recalled to western Pennsylvania, where in 1753 he received 
Maj. George Washington on an embassy from Virginia. Two years later he 
was killed in battle. 

i» Wis. Hist. Colls., XVII, 269, 270. 

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and dissimulation, and finally, on May 30, 1737, abandoned 
their post with all its goods and belongings in order to save 
their Uves.-" 

The site of St. Pierre's post is located approximately for us 
by Jonathan Carver, who visited it in 1766, and noted the ruins 
upon Lake Pepin. "Here," he says, "I observed the ruins of a 
French factory, where it is said Captain St. Pierre resided, and 
carried on a very great trade with the Naudowessies.* * * " In 
the next sentence he mentions Mount Trempealeau as sixty miles 
below this site.'^^ The records would thus seem to show. that the 
post near Trempealeau occupied by Linctot in the autumn of 
1731, was maintained at the same site until the removal to the 
fort on Lake Pepin in the spring of 1736. Thirteen years later 
the French government established another Sioux post under the 
leadership of Capt. Pierre Paul Marin, a well-known Wisconsin 
commandant. 22 Hq ^^s recalled two years later to serve on 
the Allegheny frontier, and his son Joseph succeeded to the 
command. The latter maintained his post for three years, 
but during the French and Indian War was obhged to withdraw 
the garrison and destroy the post — the last under French occu- 
pation upon the upper Mississippi. ^^ 

To recapitulate, the posts on the upper Mississippi^* during 
the French regime so far as documentary evidence shows, were: 

1. Perrot's wintering establishment, 1685-86. 

2. Fort St. Antoine, probably 1686-89.^5 



2» Ibid., 269-74. 

*' Jonathan Carver, Traiels (London, 1778), 56. 

22 For a sketch of this officer, see Wis. Hist. Colls., XVII, 315, note. 

« Edward D. Neill in Macalester College, Contributions (St. Paul, 1890), 
1st ser., 214, 218, locates Marin's post on the west side of Lake Pepin near 
Frontenac, Minn. 

" The posts at and below the mouth of the Wisconsin are not included in 
this survey. 

25 Fort St. Antoine and Fort Perrot were identical. Before he had seen 
Franquelin's map, Neill postulated two separate forts — Perrot and St. Antoine. 
This he impliedly withdraws in his article in Wis. Hist. Colls., X, 300. Lyman 
C. Draper perpetuates Neill's error in his discussion, ibid., 358. He was inter- 
ested in refuting Butterfield on the Prairie du Chien post, and accepted Neill'? 
earlier statement without comparison with his later conclusions. This error 
of two forts, Perrot and St. Antoine, is repeated in Mississippi Valley Historical 
Association, Proceedings, IV, 93, 94. 

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French Post near Trempealeau 

3. Le Sueur's trading post on Pelee Island, 1695-99. 

4. Fort Beauharnois, 1727-28. 

5. Linctot's post, probably 1731-36. 

6. St. Pierre's post, 1736-37. 

7. Marin's post, 1750-55. 

The writer believes that the first and fifth of these posts were 
located near Mount Trempealeau, and that there is much reason 
to think that the exact site has at length been discovered and 
explored. 



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